Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build Scheme: FOI release

Information requested

1. The number of new build properties purchased with assistance from Help to Buy (Scotland) Affordable New Build Scheme since the beginning of the scheme in 2013.

2. The total value of equity loans extended by the Scottish Government under the scheme over this period.

3. For the end of each financial year since it’s conception in September 2013 please can you provide the following information and breakdown:

The number of Help to Buy (Scotland) properties which have (a) sold and separately the number of properties where the buyer has (b) increased their equity share to 100% (tranched up).

4. With respect to these sales and tranche-ups, the nominal net return received by the Scottish Government along with the cumulative nominal return for the period. Could you please break this information down by year?

5. Where available, the real net return (adjusted for inflation) and the discounted net cost to the Scottish Government over the period?

6. The mean nominal annualised return on properties sold or tranched up since 2020/21.

7. The net cost to the Scottish Government of the scheme over the period 2020/21 to 2024/25, including any administrative costs. If these costs were covered by the buyer, could you please state this and what was the cost covered by the buyers.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested in the format you asked for. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

The answer to your each of your questions are as follows:

1. From the start of Help To Buy (Scotland) in September 2013 until the end of the scheme March 2021, 18,066 new build properties have been purchased with assistance from Help To Buy (Scotland).

2. The value of equity loans extended by the Scottish Government under Help To Buy (Scotland) over this period has amounted to £571,520,081.

3. At the end of August 2025, 7,427 HTB (Scotland) properties had either been sold or the buyer had increased their equity share to 100%.

The table below sets out the number of Help to Buy properties by year:

Year	Number of properties
2018	6
2019	1,380
2020	796
2021	1,381
2022	1,246
2023	993
2024	926
2025	699
Grand Total	7,427

4. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because the Scottish Government does not hold information on the net return received. The table below reports the Gross return received by the Government by financial year:

Financial Year	Gross Revenue
2018-19	£22.5m
2019-20	£35.0m
2020-21	£37.5m
2021-22	£49.0m
2022-23	£41.3m
2023-24	£30.9m
2024-25	£38.2m
Grand Total	£254.4m

5. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the The Scottish Government does not have the information requested for the period after March 2020 as no analysis has been carried out to calculate: the real net return (adjusted for inflation) and the discounted net cost to the Scottish Government over the period. The following link to the Scottish Government Return on Help to Buy (Scotland) holds information that may be of interest to you Help+to+Buy+%28Scotland%29+Return+Report+to+2020.pdf.

6. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the The Scottish Government does not have the information requested for the period after March 2020 as no analysis has been carried out to calculate: the mean nominal annualised return on properties sold or tranched up since 2020/21.

7. The net costs to the Scottish Government of the scheme over the period of financial year 2020/21 (when the scheme closed) were administration costs of £872,059. Any administrative fees paid by the buyers including conveyancing are not held by the Scottish Government.

About FOI

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